The Batman: Beyond Files

BookPage® Review by Michael Sims

It is a new millennium in Gotham City, and even as businesses pull the skyscrapers ever higher, criminals drag the streets ever lower. It has been two decades since an aging Bruce Wayne hung up his bat-costume and retired. As the authors write in their introduction, "For many of Gotham's citizens, theirs is a city without hope, because it is a city without a hero." But then a new hero comes along, a young man who becomes Bruce Wayne's latest protÅ½gÅ½ no mere sidekick this time, not another Robin, but a younger incarnation of Batman. It is time to take on a new generation of criminals, and Wayne is too old to do it by himself. A new Batman is needed.

Based upon the Warner Bros. Network's popular animated series, this handsome, colorful 50-page oversize paperback includes profiles of the characters, what writers call "backstory," information on the new Batcave and Bat-weapons, and three full-size posters. Kids will get to follow the working partnership of Bruce Wayne and young Terry, his girlfriend Dana Tan ("Call me when you're ready to commit more time to me than to Bruce Wayne."), and perennial villains such as Mr. Freeze. Newcomers include the Jokerz, a gang who dress as clowns and imitate the crimes of the Batman's former arch-enemy, the Joker. This book is fun, lively, and filled with Bat-trivia. It could not possibly be more colorful. The only problem is that the elderly Bruce Wayne looks too much like Boris Karloff. However, how many kids will remember Boris Karloff?